J2150U Blog #13

In lecture this week, Professor Rice showed us Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. I found the one by Massoud Hossaini to be the most meaningful and impacting. Dr. Rice talked about the meaning behind it and I don’t think I’d personally be able to ever capture a photo like this one. The photo is of a 12 year-0ld Afghan girl standing in the center of dead bodies after a suicide bomber’s attack. The way the photo captures her emotions is unbelievable. I respect Mr. Hossiani for being able to remain calm enough to capture such a dramatic event and keep his composure because I wouldn’t have been able to do so. Dr. Rice talked about how Mr. Hossiani was able to do so because he wanted to get the story out and show how people are affected by such attacks.

The next portion of lecture was led by Chicago Tribune previous writers. It was very interesting because I am from Chicago and read the Tribune every morning when I’m home. The two men gave an interesting presentation about demographics like we’ve been going over in class. I thought it was so interesting when they showed the clip about how they used images to map out and give a reader a virtual tour of the marathon in New York that went through all 5 boroughs. It felt like I was really running in it! I also really enjoyed the one they showed us to display the Earth’s population and how it’s changed over time in various countries. There was a simulation in which every country was a different glass and color and had colored water dripping in representing births and water slowly dripping out representing deaths. It was very cool to see how each country has changed over time through a visual demographic. I really liked these two examples because information was provided in an interesting and memorable way that was simple to understand.

I’ve been realizing more and more that boring and confusing information can be made simple through visual and virtual images. I think that this field will begin to increase more and more especially with more students going into strategic communications and with graphic design growing and increasing.